She Knows

9 AM

Being a fashion designer is a hard, aggressive competition, growing your brand, all of the time it takes to design and make your clothes, etc. It gets especially frustrating when you have your boss breathing down your neck to make deadlines.

His name is Richard, a coincidenc,e since he likes to remind everyone how rich he is. I will admit that when I first started working for him I thought he was one of the sweetest and sexiest I've known, getting to actually know him changed that real quick.

Picture an Italian mobster, the accent, the money, the attitude, even the look but way more handsome. He has the attitude of a CEO and the mind of one too, no matter how much I loathe him he actually is a great businessman.

I came into work today expecting the usual, paperwork stacked on my desk so and sheets to fill in about my design quota, surprisingly I got the opposite, a sticky note saying we had a meeting at nine. "Shit", I look at the clock and it's nine on the dot, now I'll have to listen to Richard complain for the first five minutes of the meeting about me being late.

It went as usual, statistics, a stupid question, end of meeting with an insult from Richard to everyone.

"Sabrina, stay back for a minute."

What does he want this time?

"I've noticed you're ahead of schedule and wanted to know if you could help me on a new project?" I'm shocked, he has never wanted me as a consult on any of his projects let alone help with anything. "Yeah, what time would you like me to stop by your office?"

"Not my office, tonight, seven, I'll pick you up," he says as his eyes stare down at me as though he's never seen me before. "I guess that works too," I say hesitantly, "by the way, what the project?"

"I'll keep it a mystery for now."

I can't believe he just left me like that, I'm confused and flustered, I have no idea what just happened. Out of all of our encounters that was the weirdest one by far. Why would my boss want to take me out to help with this mystery project, instead of working on it the office like usual? The most important question, why did he choose me? I mean I'm completely qualified and capable of helping him, but he would never choose a woman usually. I can only be hopeful for the opportunity and pray this won't be a disaster tonight.

7 PM

I wait in the lobby, fidgeting with a string on my shirt, nervous that he's playing a sick joke on me and won't even show up. I don't believe he would embarrass me, I mean I still have to work with him after.

"Sabrina, would you like to go now?" Richard scares the shit out of me; I turn around and see he's dressed in a t-shirt and jeans, a sight I've never seen before.

"Yeah," I say hesitantly, "let's get this show on the road."

Being outside of work with the Richard feels unusual but oddly not the weirdest thing. It feels like going on a blind date, not knowing how to act around the person and not knowing anything about them. The only thing I know about Richard are professional things and a few things he's let slip at work here and there. He's thirty-five, divorced and has a daughter, I'm not sure how old she is though.

9 PM

Throughout dinner he only made small talk, sports, politics, he even asked about my life a little; every time I asked about him he would just divert away from it though. We never talked about this mysterious project which is actually starting to make me skeptical, he brought me here to do this and he hasn't even said a word about work.

"So I've wondering when you were going to mention this secret project?" Looking over his shoulder I realize we're the only people left in the restaurant.

"I'm sorry, I guess I got so distracted by you that I completely forgot," he says. "Well, this project of mine has me getting to know you personally, knowing your taste in things, since the next line we'll be making is an intimates line."

I'm appalled, never in my life have I been speechless but now I don't even know how to react. Why did he need ME to do this with him? Why did we need to do this OUTSIDE of the office? This is not acceptable behavior for any boss to act towards their employee.

"Yeah, well I think it's time to go," I counter, not knowing how to react to that.

He reached his hand across the table to mine. "I don't want you to go," he said with a smirk and a wink; it's then that I've had enough. I get up and immediately feel frustrated, he can't treat me like this, I work for him and have shown no interest in anything else but work with him. All of a sudden I feel him stop me and I look back. With his hand held out for me, his eyes longing at me, saddened that I got up to leave.

I obliged and gave him my hand. "On one condition, tell me what you really want with me."